Speaking of which, several famous scientists, authors and politicians had dreams that helped guide their work. Friedrich Kekule had difficulty constructing a benzene molecule until he dreamed of it as an ouroboros ring. That structure turned out to be accurate.

The same thing happened to Niels Bohr who dreamed of electrons rotating around the nucleus. He won a Nobel Prize for following (and verifying) his dream.

Albert Einstein dreamed of seeing the extended spectrum of colors while traveling at the speed of light. He later said, "My entire scientific career has been a meditation on that dream."

The list continues: Harriet Tubman trusted her dreams to select routes along the Underground Railroad; Abraham Lincoln predicted his death in a dream two days before he was assassinated; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mary Shelley dreamed of Kubla Khan and Frankenstein, respectively, before they wrote them.

Finally, Palermo said that there are three levels to dreaming.

Level one are dreams that depict the day's events. Level-two dreams contain personal symbolism. And dreams of the third level contain what Carl Jung referred to as archetypes.

Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, believed that there are certain characters and motifs that appeared in every culture's imaginations: the hero, mother, child, trickster, flood, dragon and so on.

Furthermore, Jung believed that archetypical dreams tapped into something he called the collective unconscious.

If Jung's correct, not only do all people share the act of dreaming, but our dreams connect us all at a basic level.

In other words, dreams show us that we all may have more in common than we thought.

Thanks to Palermo, Dailey and everyone who came to their talk Monday. For more information on programs and events at Mentor Public Library, visit our web site or call 440-255-8811.

About Me

Mentor Public Library isn't just a place to borrow books, movies and music -- though it's that too. It's a place to stimulate the imagination, satisfy curiosity and connect to the outside world. Most of all, it's a place where you can keep learning all of your life.